The Conservative candidate in Guelph doesn’t believe his campaign had anything to do with the “Pierre Poutine” robocalls that directed opposition supporters in the riding to go to the wrong polls on election day, he said in a statement published by the Guelph Tribune on Tuesday.

“I have absolutely no knowledge of who made such calls or how and why they were made,” said Marty Burke. “I do not believe there is any connection between these calls and any member of our hard-working, dedicated campaign team. I would be shocked to find out otherwise.”

Burke says a week ago he volunteered to make a witness statement to Elections Canada to share what “little information” he had about the matter.

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On the morning of election day, a robocall pretending to come from Elections Canada was sent to thousands of opposition supporters in Guelph directing them to go to the wrong polling station. Some voters there tore up their voter cards in anger at having been tricked, according to a sworn affidavit from investigator Al Mathews, who has been investigating the crime ever since.

Conservatives in Ottawa suggest that whatever happened in Guelph must have been the work of rogue elements within the party, and call reports of similar calls across the country a smear from sore losers on the opposition benches.

The robocall in Guelph did not change the course of the election. Liberal MP Frank Valeriote actually increased his margin of victory.

Burke’s statement dwells at length on another robocall, one made a few days before the election by Valeriote’s campaign, anonymously attacking Burke for favouring legal restrictions on abortion.

The call did not identify who paid for it, as Elections Canada rules require. The woman who recorded it apparently used a false name and the number provided for callers was also false.

The call “appears to have broken several EC laws as well as CRTC laws,” says Burke in his statement. “For this reason, I filed a formal complaint requesting that Elections Canada investigate this matter.”

Burke says Elections Canada, which typically refuses to confirm investigations, is looking into Valeriote’s robocall as well as the “Pierre Poutine” call.

Elections Canada has spoken with several young Burke campaign workers about the Poutine call. Andrew Prescott and Michael Sona have both hired lawyers, and both have repeatedly denied any involvement in the affair.

The Globe and Mail has reported that Prescott cancelled a planned meeting with an investigator on the advice of his lawyer.

Several key members of Burke’s campaign team have yet to speak out about the calls. Neither his campaign manager, Ken Morgan, nor the head of the local Conservative riding association, John White, have responded to repeated requests for comment. It is not known if either have been contacted by Elections Canada.

Chris Crawford, a Burke campaign worker who now serves as an aide to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue, has also not returned repeated calls. Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen have been unable to obtain comment from anyone in Penashue’s office. The minister’s press secretary, Cory Hann, has not responded to repeated calls.